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motivational

I always say, at Burning Man, you’re bound to feel a very, very wide range of emotions. (Photo by Andy Barron)

Post playa depression is a very real thing, especially after your first burn. A lot of people experience it, I know I did! It’s a natural problem after returning from the best week of your entire LIFE!!! Transitioning back into the real-world and processing all the amazing things you experienced can be an overwhelming process. There are SO many incredible things we experienced in our little city for that full week that it is impossible that you are not wired differently now!

You may be questioning your job, your coworkers, maybe your friends, the fact that you have to drive your car now instead of your bicycle and are stuck in traffic. The lack of wide open, endless, liberating spaces… Even your appetite might have changed, you may not be craving sugar as much, or the television, or Facebook, etc!

Direct that newfound energy to make life more awesome

Don’t worry my friend! You can use this energy to make powerful changes that will make your default world more like Black Rock City. This is not the time to just go back to the way things were but to integrate the lessons you learned and make progressive changes in your life!

This is why, for example, I ride my bicycle as much as I can, all the time. It connects my spirit to the carefree and timeless way of life at burning man combined with healthy exercise. So one thing you can do is… ride your bicycle a lot more often! Integrate bike-riding and public transport with work or maybe even just have simple rides around a park.

Say hello / good morning / good evening to strangers even if they don’t want to look at you or respond like most people in the city. Even if they stare depressingly at the sidewalk as they pass you… it’s okay, say hello to them anyway, it will make you feel good inside and maybe remind them to look up once in a while.

My brother and I find yoga to be soothing for the soul. Here, we are doing camel pose during exodus. It’s no coincidence there were tons of yoga classes at the burn… the good news is, there’s plenty of yoga studios in your own town! Even donation based ones in parks if you look hard enough! And nowadays, with YouTube around, you can even do it at home!

Smile and wave at the driver stuck at the red light next to you! Who cares if they get confused and wonder why you would do such a crazy thing. Smiling is awesome and that will lift their spirits and raise the vibration of the situation. Who knows, they might just smile and wave back. :le gasp:

Take that “risk” of interacting with people like you did at the burn. Maybe it’s time you finally start that conversation with your neighbor of 10 years.

Do you realize now that you hate hearing the TV? Then leave it off! Or better yet, save some money and cancel your cable service. 😛

Do you realize now you have too many useless material possessions and can’t stand the clutter? Start that cleansing process by selling your stuff on craigslist and get some money for it while freeing up your space!

During magic hour, climb the nearest hill, or find a tall building (or parking structure) and go on its rooftop so you could enjoy the beautiful colors in the big sky! (It’s the best time to take your break at work.)

What about following… those dreams?

Remember how when you were on the playa, you had the choice of doing anything? If you wanted to find a place to do yoga, a cyclist with a yoga mat in their basket would magically appear and next thing you know you’re following them to the yoga class you requested internally just minutes ago. (This “playadipity” = synchronicity. Openness to spontaneity is the key toward synchronicity.)

On the playa, you might have been inundated with so many options you might have experienced several moments where you had to stop and question what it is you really wanted. Well, the real life is like that. You have all the options in the world to do anything you want. And you have the free will to request them. So the real question becomes, WHAT DO YOU REALLY WANT? Choose the things that represent WHO YOU REALLY ARE and WHO YOU WANT TO BE.

If you realize you hate being an office drone then maybe it’s time to look for a new job! What is it your really want to do? Brain-storm. Look for openings in the different departments that you could transfer to within your current company. Maybe there are some new opportunities there you may enjoy more and learn new things. Either way, it is very important that you start doing what you love, at least on the side.

Having problems with your non-burner friends?

You might have friends who might seem a bit more distant now that you are being more REAL with them and maybe they don’t like that change or maybe you are subconsciously pushing them away. That’s okay… friends always naturally come and go. Don’t try to stick to the previous rules you had created in your friendships. Be sure to love the vulnerable-open-honest-you! The people who will love you are out there wondering where the heaven you’ve been. It may or may not work with all friendships and that’s totally fine.

A lot of people find comfort in reading stories, writing out their own stories on the burning man forum at: http://eplaya.burningman.com Go ahead and type your stories out somewhere for the world to see. They will undoubtedly be special, at least to you, and help you retain the shadow memories of your dream-like-week.

Look at the pictures or videos your friends posted such as I did here last year. Plan a get together with your camp mates to watch the pictures or videos together.

Anyway… keep your dreams alive! We got an immeasurable amount of inspiration so please don’t get bogged down. You were just a part of an amazing city that everybody took part in creating all together. A city built on freedom to be yourself. Keep those dreams alive and be strong to direct this new level of energy toward making your life as awesome as you can make it.

Thanks to the Inter­net, we are con­stantly inter­con­nected to each other and our means of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, among other things, is pretty solid. Inter­est­ingly enough, just because com­put­ers and phones have made life a lot more effi­cient, it doesn’t mean I have less to do whatsoever.

For me, it means I could do a lot more with my time. And the amount of stuff to do is essen­tially end­less. There is no ‘off but­ton’ to life and I embrace that. The amount of stuff to do will never end. We can’t just sit still for very long, there’s always some­thing; we’ve got lad­ders to climb, peo­ple to see, high­est selves to ful­fill, and so forth.

Sometimes we make lists to help us out.

Think about the times you used a shop­ping list. Didn’t that make things much easier?

Instead of casu­ally brows­ing the store aisles, if you have a list, you know what you want so you walk with pur­pose. If you get dis­tracted, all you have to do is to look back at the list.

Life’s To Do List

So why make a list only when it’s time to go shop­ping? What about mak­ing the rest of your life as easy as that?

Our lives are full of poten­tial and how will they ever be real­ized if we don’t jot down those awe­some things we have to do? You don’t have to be the stereo­typ­i­cal “busy busi­ness­man” to use a to-do list, plan­ner or calendar.

The same way you would walk with pur­pose through the super mar­ket, you could walk with deter­mi­na­tion and pur­pose through­out the whole of your life, mak­ing you much more pro­duc­tive and full of gratification.

How to start a to-do-list for LIFE (work, school, hobbies, etc!)

There is no best-way to go about doing these things since we are all dif­fer­ent and there’s a mil­lion ways to do this, but there are sev­eral tips I could share to guide you.

1. Choose your medium and keep it simple.

Prefer­ably, choose some­thing you could take with you all the time and add to on the fly. I take advan­tage of the fact that I always have my phone with me and use my iPhone’s basic Notes pro­gram to main­tain a list. Be wary of fancy apps or com­plex sys­tems as they may eas­ily take up more time to man­age and main­tain than is necessary.

If you don’t have a smart­phone, go back to the basics and have a pen and paper with you. Some­times there’s noth­ing bet­ter than jot­ting down tasks on paper and adding ideas as things pop into your mind through­out the day.

2. Keep your list visible or always on you!If you put away your to-do-list, you will prob­a­bly for­get about it.

If you decide to use your com­puter to main­tain a list, keep the list open all the time. Pur­posely place a short­cut on your desk­top, start menu, on the quick launch (or pinned to your taskbar in Win­dows 7) and keep the file open… get the idea? You keep your web browser open for count­less hours at a time, so why not sim­ply keep your to-do list open all the time as well? In other words, I’m telling you to prac­tice the oppo­site of “out of sight, out of mind!”

3. Split your list into two sections: High priority and normal priority.

High priority items are things you want to get done urgently or today.

Nor­mal pri­or­ity items are every­thing else. Through­out the day, I often remem­ber new things I want to do and get fresh ideas and I will imme­di­ately whip out my phone and add it into the list. Some­times I’ll have a third sec­tion at the end which are super ran­dom but fun things such as “Find a tree to climb, go horse­back rid­ing, roller blade, etc”.

4. Do the most frightening or challenging task on your list FIRST.

Due to subconscious-self-sabotage, you will want to put off the hardest (or most frightening) task off until later (or forever). If you get that done first, you will not only feel great about yourself but the rest of your day will feel like a breeze.

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step” – Lao Tzu

Just remember that with baby steps, anything is possible. If a task seems too daunting or overwhelming, break it down into smaller steps so that it becomes a lot easier to deal with. Once you build up some momentum, the inertia will carry you throughout the day and everything gets pretty awesome once you get in the zone.

It feels great to get things done in an efficient manner and there’s no reason to stress when a simple list can keep us on track and prevent us from feeling scatter brained. I would love to hear any tidbits you got that help keep your life organized since we all have our own perspective on things and can teach and learn from each other to lift each other up. 🙂

I’d like to point out a few details that may be obvious, but it’s imperative that we are well aware of them. I hope this will inspire and jump-start your personal evolution to help you flow to the best of your ability.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.” Neale Donald Walsch

Change is the only constant.Heraclitus said it in many ways: nothing endures but change; Everything flows, nothing stands still; the only constant is change.The same way the universe is constantly changing, constantly transforming chaos into order, our living cells are always trying to maintain equilibrium and if they cannot, they die and are broken apart, recycled and flushed. Our bodies are refreshing, replacing and regenerating themselves in many ways, all the time. I’ve always applied this constantly-changing motif to our biological processes since there are millions of things happening simultaneously in our bodies all the time. However, it’s even more important that we apply this concept to our personal development and self-education to reach our goals and dreams.

Like a plant, you’re either growing or dying.When I was 20 years old, I was at a Millionaire Mind seminar and the main speaker, T. Harv Ecker told us, “Isn’t it interesting how a plant seems like it’s either growing or dying? Just like a plant, you’re either growing or dying as well.”

The statement that we’re all either growing or dying is very dramatic and while cellular processes are more complicated than that, it is very true in the long-term. Our mind, body and spirit are constantly adjusting to everything we’re experiencing. Every time we reach a new level of skill in something, that automatically becomes the new norm. Conversely, when we stop learning, exercising or practicing, given enough time, we simply fall behind.

There is no such thing as maintaining in the long-term.
In a universe of change, you have no choice but to succumb to it. Since change is the only thing that’s happening all the time, if you don’t try to ramp yourself up to a new level, you’re going to regress. If you’re not going forward, you’re going backwards. Something must be changing one way or another. If you’re just trying to maintain, then you’re going backwards. Maintaining is a passive form of regression.

As far as your physical health goes, your body is literally a sculpture in constant progress. If you are exercising regularly but do not vary your workout routine, your body will adapt and go on cruise control. Bodybuilders and athletes are very aware of this exercise plateau. They have to constantly switch up their routines and attack their muscles in different ways to surprise the body and force it to adapt to new levels. If you don’t exercise at all, then your muscles and bones will invariably get weaker. If you don’t give them any reason to grow, then they will waste away.

However, atrophy is not limited to body parts. The same goes for your mind and spirit. If you have a job and you’ve learned everything there is to learn in that position, then eventually you’re just maintaining that current position. How long will it take before you become a zombie to the routine? If you get sick and tired of a job, you’re probably sick and tired of maintaining that position. You need to find a way to grow otherwise it becomes a waste of time and your spirit will want nothing more than to break up the monotony.

” If we aim for some middle ground or status quo, it’s an illusion—beneath the surface what’s actually happening is we’re dying, not growing. “ Robert K. Cooper

Stand at the edge of your comfort zone.

It is quite the challenge to exert oneself to new levels at all times. It’s definitely trying on my soul but it’s the only challenge worth accepting (considering the alternative). Research biologist Albert Szent-Gyoergyi, who was twice awarded the Nobel Prize, called this syntropy, a kind of negative entropy which he defined as the “innate drive in living matter to perfect itself.”

For example, starting this blog is very challenging to me in a lot of fresh ways. When I create a weather video, it’s generally kind of exciting because I’m not used to being videotaped and talking to an audience. Pushing myself to new boundaries helps me grow and it makes me feel alive. I can feel the excitement in my heart. I could feel my brain working in new ways. Creating new content, such as this article, is pushing my comfort zone because I’m literally putting my name and image out there directly in front of everyone.

Even if the status quo you’re surrounded with is very prestigious, like say, you’re a professor at an Ivy league school for decades and you’re credited with many discoveries, that is the norm for you and you can easily branch out and push yourself in new ways from that position.

Embrace change with baby steps.

Embrace the fact that you can instantly turn things around for your benefit. All it takes are baby steps. With baby steps you can get anywhere and do anything. It just takes the smallest effort to create a long-term, progressively oriented action. Strive for development and cultivate who you really are and who you want to be. When you get those moments of inspiration, write them down (or type them in your phone) immediately. You never know when those fleeting moments of brilliance will come back.

You will never be the age you are now ever again, so you might as well take advantage of your limited time here on Earth. Don’t just wait around for something to happen because waiting will kill your precious time. There is a grand version of you that is so great the universe doesn’t even know what to expect. You know that deep inside. Every once in a while, maybe in your dreams or while you’re daydreaming, you’ll see a glimpse of your dreams turned real; an image of yourself so grand and exquisite that you wonder how you’ll ever get there (read: baby steps).

You can have unparalleled control of your health, education, career and relationships if you embrace change. Allow your life to have a healthy theme of progression built-in to it and everything will flow effortlessly. Don’t be stagnant! Stagnation leads to missed opportunities, a waste of time, and unrealized dreams. Meet your own expectations and attack your goals with great passion to continually build yourself anew.

I’m really glad I have finally shared this info and I hope this provides some inspiration to truly be who you want to be and achieve those long-term oriented goals. I would love to hear what you have to say and add to this. Please leave your comments below and thank you for reading!

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